Price to Pay
by blue octopus
Summary: What might have happened if there had never been a DoctorDonna? Could the Doctor have kept Rose? Maybe, but Donna would have been the price to pay. [My musings, an exploration away from the real ending of Journey's End.]


So this is my take on what might have happened if there had been no DoctorDonna. Rose could have stayed with the Doctor, but what about Donna? -This is just something I wrote up on a whim, I'm sure there are plot holes, and I didn't write about defeating the Daleks (let's be honest, I _couldn't_ write that.), but here we are. It ends on a hopeful note, I guess, but I don't think I could ever follow up, haha.

* * *

Donna was falling.

It was strange feeling, the falling. Because Donna knew that she was about to be incinerated, she and the TARDIS. And yet, she felt like she was free, if just for the last seconds of her life.

But Donna was never one to give up easily, and so she got to her feet and she did what she had to do.

"I can fly the TARDIS, right?" She told herself. "Ohh, I can't fly the TARDIS!" She wailed. And then she tried, and true to her words, Donna Noble could _not _fly the TARDIS. And that's how Donna Noble found herself crashing into the room where Davros held everyone captive.

And Donna Noble did not know what to do.

* * *

"What is going on?" Davros yelled.

The TARDIS had landed on its side, near a pile of rubble that the crash landing had caused. Donna took a quick chance to open the door and roll out of it, while Davros yelled at the Doctor. She managed to hide herself, praying for a plan.

Rose stared at the TARDIS. There was no possible way it could have gotten up here, unless someone had flown it. And the only person who could fly the TARDIS was the Doctor.

Then, she saw a flash of movement, and a strand of Donna's red hair peeked out from behind a machine that Davros was dangerously close to.

She wanted to call out to Donna and tell her to run, tell her to get away, before he killed her. But she couldn't risk exposing her, not when Donna might offer them a way out.

So Rose prayed.

Just like that, her prayers were answered. Because Donna, oh, Donna Noble, she jumped out from her hiding place and skewered Davros with a pole salvaged from the rubble, but not before he could drive a blade into her side.

And Donna killed Davros, and Davros killed Donna.

"NO!" The Doctor screamed. "DONNA!"

Davros was dead. But Donna had some breaths left, and with the ones she had, she managed to press a button to release the Doctor. At least, that way, they weren't completely trapped, and they could still defeat the Daleks. And that's what they did.

* * *

. Rose cried silent tears as she slowly walked to the other woman and sat down beside her near lifeless body. "Donna," she said, "come on, we can get you to the TARDIS, we can fix you up."

Some part of Donna, though, knew it was the end. "No, I think . . . I think this is it, Rose Tyler," she said. "I did it. I killed him. That's it. That's what I was here for."

Rose pursed her lips to keep back the sobs that threatened to wrack her body. "No, you listen to me, Donna Noble. You are the most important woman in the universe. Without you, there wouldn't _be _a universe."

The Doctor ran into the room, looking around, and was quickly by Donna's side.

"Donna," he said, putting a hand on her arm.

Donna's eyes opened halfway. "Doctor."

"Donna, it's going to be okay, I promise."

She smiled a little. "You promise," she repeated. "Then promise me this, Doctor. Promise me you'll be happy. You take Rose Tyler, and you be happy, you hear me?" Then she sighed. "And tell my mum that I love her, and . . . tell my granddad that I love him."

"No, no, _you _will tell them that you love them. You'll be okay."

Donna's eyes opened fully, and she looked up at the Doctor. "Just _tell them," _she said urgently.

The Doctor nodded, and Rose let out a sob from behind her hand.

"Good," Donna whispered. And then she died.

* * *

The crew—the gang—was utterly silent as they drove the TARDIS, pulling earth back to its rightful place in the universe. Because aboard this ship was the body of the most important woman in the universe.

She was dead. Donna was dead. And the Doctor believed that he might also be, when he told her mother.

After leaving Sarah Jane, the Doctor left Rose, Jackie, Mickey, Jack, and Martha in the TARDIS while he went to Donna's mum and granddad.

Oh, how he dreaded telling them that he had let this happen. He had promised to keep her safe.

"She saved the universe," he told them. "All the universes."

Wilf had cried the most heartbreaking tears the Doctor had ever known. Donna's mother wailed and screamed and hit him. But the Doctor didn't flinch. Not on the outside, that is.

* * *

"This world is about to be sealed off," the Doctor said, blinking in the sunlight as he and Rose stood on the beach, same as that fateful day. "I . . ." He didn't know how to say this. He couldn't ask Rose to leave her family for him. Especially now, after one of his companions had just died. "I hope you have a wonderful life, Rose Tyler."

And he turned around to go.

"Where do you think you're going?"

He looked at her. "I'm going back," he said. "I've got to, before I get stuck here."

"No, I mean, you're _leaving _me. You can't do that, not again."

Jackie looked between them, and she knew what was coming. "Rose," she said warningly.

Rose looked at her mother. "Mum," Rose began, "I love you. I love you and dad and Tony. But I also love the Doctor. You _know _I love him."

Jackie closed her eyes. "Do you have to go?" She whispered.

Rose nodded, tears in her eyes. "You know I do."

Then mother and daughter embraced, both crying, because they knew they'd never see each other again. And Jackie hugged the Doctor tightly. "You take care of her," she said fiercely, through clenched teeth.

The Doctor nodded solemnly. "I . . . I will."

And that's the story of how Rose Tyler came to travel with the Doctor. Again.

"Doctor," Rose began, inside the TARDIS.

He looked at her.

"I love you," she said.

He grinned. "Rose Tyler, I love _you_."

As the Doctor flipped levers and flew the TARDIS away from Bad Wolf Bay, he thought of Donna, and how she had saved the universe, but died, and how she was the price to pay for the universe.

And then, he thought about Rose. Because Rose had been lost, and now she was found.

Maybe Donna could be found, too.


End file.
